Bianca MullerA garden can feed more than the soil. It can fill a kitchen, bring people around a table and offer a closer connection to the food we eat.
That is at the heart of Garden Day 2026, taking place on Sunday, 18 October, with this year’s theme, From Garden to Table: Grow, Gather, Celebrate. Now in its 11th year, the annual celebration encourages South Africans to enjoy their gardens, gather with friends and family, and celebrate what can be grown and shared.
For chefs, that connection starts long before an ingredient reaches the plate. It might be a handful of leaves picked just before dinner, vegetables grown at home or produce sourced from a community garden. These five chefs and food personalities show just how much can come from growing, gathering and cooking with what is around you.
Bertus Basson: if you plant it, eat it
For chef Bertus Basson, gardening is personal. At his home in Stellenbosch, fynbos grows alongside vegetables and fruit trees. His wife’s favourite flower is the peony, and he has three peony tattoos representing his wife, son and daughter.
“Our garden is a bit of a smarty box at the moment, a little all over the show,” he says.
Raised beds and old fruit bins help make the most of the available space, while also keeping the plants happy. There is a practical side to the garden, too. Basson keeps his pig out of the vegetable patch and chooses what to grow according to what the family will actually use.
Even kitchen and restaurant waste has a place. Charcoal and ash from the restaurant fire are worked into the garden beds, while hay from the chickens is used as mulch.
“I’m definitely more of a veggie grower. If you plant something, it should serve a purpose, either for beauty or to eat. For me, it’s always about eating!”
His Garden Leaf Salad with Mustard Dressing is a simple expression of that philosophy. At home, the family picks fresh leaves for salad, including ingredients that do not traditionally make it onto the salad plate, such as beetroot leaves, kale, carrot tops, nasturtium and mizuna.
“There is something special about picking fresh leaves for salad every night,” says Basson.
Garden leaf salad with mustard dressing
Ingredients
- Garden leaves, including beetroot leaves, kale, carrot tops, nasturtium and mizuna
For the dressing
- 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 50ml white wine vinegar
- 1 cup olive oil
Method
Add all the dressing ingredients to a jar and shake vigorously until emulsified.
Toss the garden leaves with the dressing just before serving.
Chef Nti: a taste of home
Nthabiseng Nti Ramaboa, better known as Chef Nti, has built her food career around keeping South African food stories alive.
Her cooking brings familiar flavours and ingredients into a contemporary setting, with a particular appreciation for home-grown produce and local food producers.
Her lemongrass and ginger beer is rooted in memories of Christmas mornings and celebrations in Soweto. It also shows how a few simple ingredients can become something worth making and sharing.
Lemongrass and ginger beer
Ingredients
- 625g sugar
- 250g fresh ginger, chopped
- 150g lemongrass, chopped
- 4 litres water
- 2 lemons
- 10g yeast
- 1 pineapple, cut into chunks
Method
Bring 1 litre of water to the boil and add the ginger, lemongrass and sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Add the remaining water, along with the lemon juice, lemon zest and yeast. Leave the mixture to rest for 10 to 12 hours before straining and refrigerating.
Serve chilled with fresh pineapple.
Karen Dudley: letting the garden lead
Chef and Cape Town food personality Karen Dudley has a knack for putting vegetables at the centre of a meal rather than leaving them as an afterthought.
Her Orange Fennel Salad with Pralined Almonds and Smoked Paprika is a colourful Garden Day recipe, bringing together oranges, fennel, watercress, mint and thyme with feta and a crunchy smoked paprika almond praline.
It is fresh, colourful and full of ingredients that need little interference.
Orange fennel salad with pralined almonds and smoked paprika
Ingredients
- 6 medium oranges, using one or two Cara Cara or blood oranges if available
- 2 large fennel bulbs, very finely sliced
- Maldon sea salt
- 80g soft Danish feta, gently broken into bite-sized pieces
- A good handful of watercress
- 10g picked mint leaves
For the almond praline
- 80g flaked almonds
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- 100g castor sugar
For the dressing
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 2 tsp runny honey
- Leaves from a sprig of thyme or a pinch of dried thyme
- 7 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp toasted cumin seeds
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
Method
To make the praline, prepare a baking sheet with a silicone mat or baking paper and lightly butter it. Toss the flaked almonds with the paprika.
Sprinkle the sugar over the base of a heavy-based frying pan and heat until the edges begin to caramelise and the sugar melts to a pale golden colour. Do not leave it unattended or stir it.
Immediately stir in the flaked almonds and quickly spread the praline over the prepared baking sheet as thinly and evenly as possible. Leave to cool in a dry place before breaking it into fine shards or crushing it lightly with a rolling pin.
For the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
Slice the tops and bottoms off the oranges. Using a sharp paring knife, cut down the sides to remove the peel and pith, then slice the oranges into rounds, removing any pips.
Trim the fennel bulbs, reserving the fronds for the salad. Cut the bulbs in half and remove the core, then slice very finely. Add the sliced fennel to the dressing.
Pick through the watercress, discarding any very thick stems.
In a shallow bowl or serving platter, layer the orange with the dressed fennel, fennel fronds, mint leaves and feta. Finish with the pralined almonds and the remaining fennel and mint leaves. Sprinkle with a pinch of Maldon salt and dust with a little smoked paprika.
Luke and Jess: keeping it close to the source
Jessica Shepherd and Luke Grant of Good to Gather have built their food philosophy around sustainability, farm-to-table cooking and uncomplicated food that allows good ingredients to do the work.
Their beetroot tarte tatin is a good example. Beetroot is cooked until tender before being arranged over caramelised butter, brown sugar and red wine vinegar, then covered with puff pastry and baked until golden.
It is served with crème fraîche and finished with salad leaves and edible flowers, bringing together the earthy sweetness of the beetroot with fresh garden flavours.
Beetroot tarte tatin
Photo: @goodtogather
Ingredients
- 10–12 medium beetroots
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves
- Fresh thyme
- Sea salt
- 1 cup crème fraîche
- Ready-made puff pastry
- Salad leaves and edible flowers, to garnish
Method
Cook the beetroot until tender, around 20 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool before peeling.
Melt the butter with the brown sugar, then add the vinegar, thyme and garlic. Halve the beetroot and arrange it in the pan.
Cover with puff pastry, cutting a small X in the centre to allow steam to escape. Bake at 200°C for 25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden.
Leave to rest for five minutes before carefully turning it out onto a plate. Serve with crème fraîche and finish with salad leaves and edible flowers.
Chef Ayabonga Gope: the garden in a salad
For private chef Ayabonga Gope, the relationship between food and growing started well before the kitchen.
Growing up, he would accompany a neighbour to his farm to pick fresh produce. The experience taught him that a garden can provide more than ingredients. It can provide food, opportunity and a way for a community to support itself.
That belief led him to help establish a vegetable garden in his community, supplying fresh produce to restaurants and old-age homes in the Western Cape while creating jobs and feeding the community.
His grapefruit and roasted carrot salad brings that garden-to-table philosophy onto the plate. Citrus, fennel, tomatoes, basil, baby carrots, feta and wild rocket come together in a colourful salad that makes the most of fresh produce.
Grapefruit and roasted carrot salad
Ingredients
- 2 grapefruit, peeled and sliced
- 2 pomelo or oranges, peeled and sliced
- A handful of fennel
- A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 block feta, cubed
- Fresh basil
- Baby carrots
- 3 tbsp black balsamic vinegar
- Ciabatta, toasted with olive oil
- Wild rocket
For the dressing
- ¼ cup grapefruit juice
- 2 tbsp ginger juice
- 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tsp honey
- Salt and pepper
Method
Roast the baby carrots at 180°C for 10 minutes. Add the honey and balsamic vinegar towards the end and roast for another three minutes.
Combine the grapefruit, pomelo or oranges, fennel, tomatoes, herbs and roasted carrots.
Whisk together the dressing ingredients and drizzle over the salad. Serve on a bed of wild rocket, topped with feta and basil and a little more dressing.
Pistachios or avocado can also be added.
Find more Garden Day recipes and growing inspiration
ALSO SEE: Make a Flower Crown for Garden Day
